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I am a New Zealand registered nurse and nutritionist (Grad Cert Sci: nutrition, Massey Univ). I am a Certified Zone Instructor, and have worked teaching Zone diet principles to hundreds of clients over the last 10 years. More recently after finding that eating Paleo food choices was the "icing on the cake" health wise, I have become a Paleo enthusiast and teacher. Follow me on twitter @juliannejtaylor

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It’s not every day that a perfect stranger says “Wow you are AMAZING!”

But it did happen today in the park. I go to my park (Western Springs Park in Grey Lynn) next door and do sprints 2 – 3 times a week. The weather is simply stunning in Auckland today, so I couldn’t not take the opportunity. I also took hubby’s heart rate monitor. Exercise is not my strong suit, but I feel so much better having done it.

My heart rate – walking around started off at about 80 (after an espresso too I might add). I was curious to see what the sprints would do. I jogged down the hill. Heart rate about 130. Walked a bit – back down to 110. Sprinted for 30 seconds approximately. Of course when I’m running flat-out I don’t read the monitor – so as soon as I stopped – it was 230 – but a nano second later it was 187. Hmm, not sure what this means, but anyway I slowed down to a walk – and it dropped to 120 – 130 or so within a couple of minutes, but this time I felt ready for my next sprint. I continued this 2 times round the lake, it is about 1 kilometer in diameter, I did 6 sprints I think – forgot to count. It was after one of these sprints that 2 women walking the other way made the ‘you are amazing’ comment. Better than my 16yo son’s “You look like you are running from a rapist” comment.

Both comments lead me to believe I look like I am running fast – although this is probably a sad indictment on society – as I am not a fast runner – I take nearly 20 seconds to run 100 metres. Also – to see a middle-aged women running her little socks off is probably somewhat unusual. Not that I care.

The other interesting side effect of sprinting on a regular basis is that I find myself frequently breaking into a run; between my car and the supermarket doors, between checking the post and running to the butcher.

I saw a kid down at the park today – stopping to look at the baby swans then running to catch up to his parents. I felt just like that, running makes me feel young – the way I felt when I was a kid.

So run, it’s good for you – and it turns the clock back emotionally and physically.

Western Springs Park, Grey Lynn, Auckland. The park I live next to and sprint around.

Paleo & Zone Nutrition(NZ)

I am a New Zealand registered nurse and associate registered nutritionist (PGDipSci: nutrition, Massey Univ). I discovered by chance that dietary changes improved my health, reduced the effect of auto-immune issues and enabled me to keep a healthy weight. As a result, I went back to university study nutrition after a 10-year career in design. My post-grad research looked at diet and its effect on rheumatoid arthritis. I am also a researcher for Nigel Latta "Is Sugar The New Fat?" and Simon Gault "Why Are We Fat?" I like powerlifting. Follow me on twitter @juliannejtaylor